Fading Away
by mycookiegirl
Summary: Ponyboy has always been quite small for his age, and he's not like the other kids in his grade. He's different, but his differences get him picked on. But what happens when people go too far?
1. Prologue

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)  
Just a quick note: Pony hasn't moved up a grade yet, and it's only been two months since the Curtis parents died so Pony's still thirteen and everyone else is still a year younger :)**

"Ow!" Curly hissed as Tim rubbed his shoulder with rubbing alcohol. Tim didn't even seem bothered by Curly's reaction - in fact I think he put even more alcohol onto Curly's bloody wound.

We were walking back to Curly's house, but on the way there a few socs came and tried to jump us. Curly wanted to show off how much of a hero he was, but ended up getting seriously beaten on. For my size, I only managed to hold off one before they all pounced on me.

Luckily, Angela spotted us and since we were only a few minutes away from Curly's house, she went and got Tim. The socs left after that, but I still didn't feel safe.

I haven't really felt safe around anybody anymore. Last week, some greaser kid tripped me up, and to my horror, he put his foot on my back and started sliding me around. Everybody laughed, and some of the socs even applauded the greaser. I felt utterly humiliated.

Dallas, who's the most honest person I know (except for when he's speaking to the fuzz), told me that because I'm so small, I'm bound to get picked on. I scowled at him when he said that, since he had said it in front of the whole gang, but realized that he was right.

I hate being small; for one thing, it gets me picked on, but it also makes people think that they need to treat me like I'm some sort of toddler. I love my brothers, but sometimes they take things too far.

Like one time, a few days after mom and dad died, Darry decided that we needed to go to the grocery store to get some food; since most of the food in our refrigerator was gone. He didn't want to leave me by myself, and Soda wanted to get out of the house anyway, so we all got in the truck and Darry drove us to the grocery store where we all used to go with mom.

The store brought back so many memories: the time Soda had knocked all of the tins of peas over after crashing into the shelves with a shopping cart, or the many times when Darry, Soda and I had stuffed candy bars into our pockets and left without getting caught. Darry stopped stealing the candy bars when he was ten, and I stopped my habit at eight (which was only a few months after I started stealing candy) when dad saw me take some Flipsticks and stuff them in my pocket. I only wanted to give them to some girl who I had a slight crush on, but I didn't even get them because dad yanked them out of my pocket and dragged me out of the store. Mom was mad, but I informed her that Soda still did it, which made her even madder. Soda and I were grounded for two weeks, but that didn't stop Soda from stealing candy again. He just made sure he was never caught.

Anyway, so as we pulled up outside the store, Darry warned me to not get lost. I groaned but promised that I wouldn't. We all got out of the truck, and Darry did something really embarrassing: he held my hand!

I blushed and yanked my hand out of his while he just gave me a confused look.

"I'm thirteen, not three!" I shouted, frustrated at his actions.

Darry just shrugged and gave me a stern glare, but he didn't try and hold my hand again, to which I was grateful for. Soda giggled and patted my shoulder, telling me to lighten up. I didn't, and spent the rest of the shopping trip sulking.

I quite like hanging out at Curly's house, for one thing: nobody treats me like I'm a little kid. Sometimes I even drink some beer, but only when it's just me and Curly in the house; if Tim saw, he'd probably throw me out and never let me back in. It's not because Tim doesn't approve of me drinking beer – it's because he's scared of what Darry would do to him if he found out that he had let me drink; most people were scared of my oldest brother.

That annoyed me a lot: the fact that nobody will let me grow up because they're scared of Darry. I don't know what my big brother's problem is; before mom and dad died, he told me that the quicker I acted grown up the quicker I would be treated like an adult. But now he won't let me grow up, and it gets on my nerves a lot of the time.

Whenever he drinks, he makes sure to do it discreetly when I'm around. He'll push me away if I get too close to him; he doesn't want me to smell the beer on him. He's also told the gang to not smoke near me; he says that even though I already smoke, if people don't do it around me as much then I might stop. Weird how he was supposed to be almost as smart as me, yet he didn't know that I couldn't live without my cigarettes!

But I guess he doesn't know how grown up I actually am. I have a secret, and secrets are really grown up aren't they? Well, it's not exactly a secret since most people in school know about it, but Darry doesn't know it, so it's a secret from him right?

It's a pretty lame secret really, and it's not even one that I enjoy having to hide from the gang. But they all have to know that I'm not a baby, and I can handle things by myself.

I love Soda and Darry, and dare I say I love the gang, but they're too…overprotective. Whenever a soc picks on me in the street, one of the gang will tell them to lay off. Then the next day when I'm walking home from school by myself, the same soc who picked on me the previous day will come up to me and ask me if I can't fight my own battles. His buddies laugh, and then they hurt me.

The gang makes it worse a lot of the time, but of course I'd never tell them that. I just try to avoid them as much as possible when I'm wandering around town; if they don't see me then they can't fight my battles for me.

I must have zoned out, because I feel somebody kick me lightly on my ankle. When I look up, Tim is looking at me with his usual intimidating expression.

"You gonna head on home, kid? It's almost six," he tells me, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows.

When I gazed at the bashed up grandfather clock, I saw that Tim was right. Then I remembered the conversation I'd had with Darry a few hours before:

" _Pony, I want you coming straight home from school today. It's Aunt Lydia's birthday - ya know, mom's big sister? Anyway, we're driving over to Houston tonight, and I need you home by four at the latest. If we leave at five and have everything ready, we should reach Houston at about 12:30 in the morning,"_

"Aww man, Darry's gonna kill me!" I muttered, grabbing my backpack and rushing out of the house after shouting goodbye.

My running was rather weak at the moment though, considering what had happened in school that day. Nobody needed to know what had happened at school; it was _my_ secret.

 **XXX**

 _We'd just had gym and most of the boys were already out of the locker rooms. I didn't want to shower with the other boys; they all stared at me and laughed at me due to my small height and under-developed body. I couldn't help the fact that some of them had six packs and other grown up features while I was stuck small and skinny. Soda kept on telling me that my time would come soon and that I just had to be patient, even though he and Darry had both hit puberty by the time they were twelve!_

 _I walked out of the shower room with a towel wrapped around my waist. The locker room seemed like a total ghost town; steam rolled between the red lockers and made the mirrors steam up. Not a single teenage boy except for myself was in the room, and it was creepy – but I was alone…or so I thought._

" _Hey grease!" I heard a high-pitched voice shout. I gasped; I had only just gotten my shirt and underwear on; it would be embarrassing for anyone to see me like this._

 _I quickly scrambled for my jeans, but since the voice had shout 'Hey grease" I assumed that the person had already saw me. Still, I wasn't about to carry on humiliating myself._

 _To my horror, four boys who were my age but looked much older appeared through the mist. Most socs were in the grade above me, but I guessed that they would have been the older socs little brothers or something like that. And they looked much older because they were taller, bigger, more…developed. Seriously, one of them even had a growing beard!_

" _You know," one started. He had red curly hair with a cluster of acne on his chin. "I heard some of the teachers talking about how this little runt is more ahead 'academically' than everybody in our grade," he laughed, pointing at me as if I was some sort of animal trapped in a cage._

" _What, so he could be skipping a grade?" the one next to him with much darker hair asked, his tone angry._

" _Yep, but I mean look at the greaser. He hasn't even hit puberty yet, and they're talking about putting him in a grade higher than us! I say we put a stop to this; they probably just feel sorry for him," the red haired soc replied, and all of his buddies nodded in response._

 _I searched around my locker for my black belt that I still hadn't looped in my jeans yet. Sweat was starting to form above my eyebrows, and no matter how much I reassured myself, I knew that I probably wasn't going to be okay._

" _It's been nice talking to you, but I really need to go," I smiled nervously, picking up my bag and rushing out. Unfortunately, the dark haired guy who obviously felt disgusted about my intelligence grabbed me back._

 _I was pushed to the ground, and then they all started kicking me, punching me and slapping me across the face. My ribs hurt something horrible, and kicks that they had given to my stomach made me vomit on the orange tiled floor. They glared at me in disgust and then left me there, lying in a heap on the ground._

 **XXX**

A similar incident had happened last week, two times last week actually. And it happened the week before, and the week before that. But I'm not getting bullied…it's just for fun right? And I can't tell the gang; I'm not a baby.

It took me ten minutes to go home; I ran all the way. By the time I barged through the front door, I was dripping sweat on the floor. Okay maybe I wasn't, but it felt like I was.

Soda and Darry were sitting at the dinner table. Darry was frowning into his cup of coffee, and Soda was anxiously peering at the clock. When Darry saw me he stood up and slammed his mug down so hard coffee splattered everywhere.

"Nice to see you showed up, Ponyboy," he growled, his eyebrows furrowed together in frustration.

"Sorry, I lost track of time. I didn't mean it," I answered calmly, giving him a cool stare.

Sodapop shook his head and bit his lip while Darry breathed out heavily. He closed his eyes, and I could tell he was counting to ten in his head. I hated it when he did that; he acted like I was a problem child or something. Mom used to do it with Soda if he did something wrong and wouldn't take his punishment, but he was the type of kid who never listened. I wasn't like that.

"So where were you then?" he questioned calmly, breathing out again.

I wasn't about to tell him I was with Curly; he didn't have a problem with any of the Shepard's – as long as I wasn't with them.

"I was with a friend," I responded; it wasn't exactly a lie.

"Which one?" he asked. Uh…..

"Johnny," I said triumphantly, knowing he'd back me up if I needed to. I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision however when Darry smirked and Soda slapped his hand against his forehead.

"Strange; Johnny was here just a few minutes ago and asked if we knew where you were. We told him that we didn't know, so now he's out looking for _you_. Why would he be looking for you if you had just been with him?" he said, eyebrows raised with the smirk still on his mouth. I knew that look; it meant I was busted.

"Sorry,"

"I don't want you to say sorry; I just want to know who you were with,"

"I wasn't with anybody!" I yelled in frustration. This was getting annoying now; sure I had messed up, but I felt really small with him interrogating me, as if he didn't trust me. Soda sometimes came home late and he never got a lecture! Though I suppose Darry did have more of a reason to be mad since we hadn't left for Houston yet.

"I really doubt that, Pony. I give you one simple instruction, and you don't listen as per usual," Darry lectured, glaring me up and down.

"Why can't we just leave now?" I asked, frustration and anger creeping up in my voice.

"There's supposed to be a big storm headed for Texas at around 12:45 am, and Darry didn't want to drive around in it," Soda piped up, looking between me and Darry.

I felt guilty then; I knew that Darry (and the rest of us) had grown paranoid over driving cars in dangerous situations, such as storms. I knew it was because of our parents' death, and even though storms were irrelevant to how they had died, we were all still wary of driving.

"Sorry Darry," I said miserably, and I truly meant it. He still didn't look pleased.

"Whatever, just go to your room," he ordered, and I sadly made my way to mine and Soda's room.

I knew that Darry never meant for me to feel lonely, but sometimes it feels like that, especially since those kids have been picking on me. I sighed, and then remembered that I had some English homework that had to be done for tomorrow. Our teacher gave me some extra homework; she whispered to me that since I had a little more potential than the other kids in my grade, she wanted to see if I could extend myself and do schoolwork intended for eighth graders.

As I looked for my book, a white slip of paper slipped out of my backpack. I picked it up and unfolded it, and then dropped it after I had scanned over it.

On it was a diagram of a small kid with green eyes, and he had a tag on his leg that read: 'GREASER'.

Then under the diagram was a small message which read:

" _Why don't you just kill yourself, Ponyboy? You're not doing the world any good, and everybody would be so much happier if you just picked up a gun and shot yourself. Love from your buddies – Nelson, Cody, Danny and Cal._

And that's when it all started.

 **AN: Hey guys, so this is the start of my new story Fading Away. I'm still continuing North and South, but I thought of the idea yesterday and decided to write about it. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, even though not much has happened yet :D**


	2. A second note?

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)  
Thank you to everybody who favorited, followed and reviewed the last chapter. It means the world to me :D**

Soda woke me up at 11 am the next day. I yawned and then rubbed my eyes, and smiled at my older brother who was grinning at me.

"Come on, time to get up," he chuckled, tickling my stomach. I squeaked and ran into the kitchen before he could tickle me even more.

Darry was sitting at the table with a mug of coffee in front of him. He had a frown on his forehead as per usual, and he was staring into his coffee as if there was a poisonous bug floating around in it.

"Hey," I greeted, sitting opposite him. He didn't even acknowledge me, as normal. Soda sat down next to him, and as if by magic Darry's frown disappeared and he had a smile on his face. That's just the way it was: Soda and Darry made each other happy while I was the annoying little boy who needed comfort and guidance.

We sat and talked…well, Darry and Soda talked. I just drank my chocolate milk and acted as if I was part of the conversation. Darry noticed this and told me to stop eavesdropping, even though I was sitting at the table with them.

I don't know what came over me. I think it was a mix between all of the hateful notes I had found in my locker to Darry's uncaring attitude towards me, and the angry and sad emotions caused me to snap.

The glass which contained my chocolate milk was slammed on the table, and it smashed. I didn't mean for it to smash, but it did: spilling chocolate milk everywhere as well as scattering glass all over the place.

Soda was shocked while Darry had pure anger in his eyes. It didn't take an idiot to know that when Darry was mad, you should leave immediately. I ran to mine and Soda's bedroom and shut the door quickly since I heard Darry's boots right behind me.

"Ponyboy, if you don't come out now, then I will break this door down," he threatened, knocking on the door.

I leant against the door and kicked it, leaving a black mark on the white wood.

"Go away!" I pleaded, sliding down to the floor.

"One…" he started. I got up and made my way over to the bookshelf. "Two…" It was really heavy, but I managed to push it in front of the door. "Three!" Darry yelled, and shoved the door harshly, but it didn't budge.

Smiling, I climbed on top of the bookshelf and put my ear to the door, where I heard Darry fuming.

"Ponyboy Michael Curtis, open this door right now!" he yelled, but I just smirked.

I waited and waited and waited, and then I eventually heard his footsteps fade away. Knowing it wouldn't be best to leave my room just yet, I waited a few more minutes before pushing the bookshelf back to his rightful position and walking out.

Darry and Soda were sitting on the sofa watching TV. When Darry saw me he stood up, but to my surprise he didn't start yelling.

"Go get ready; we're going to Aunt Lydia's," he declared in a calm tone. I sighed and started walking back to my room, however a certain lover of Mickey Mouse, beer and his switchblade stopped me.

"Well look who it is!" Two-Bit exclaimed, throwing me up in the air. I growled, hating that he had picked me up; everybody did it, and it was annoying and made me feel like a baby.

After Two-Bit had put me down, I dusted my pajama shirt off and pouted. Scanning around the room, I saw that Steve and Dallas were also accompanying Two-Bit - Johnny must have been at home.

Steve was smirking at me, and I suddenly felt unease flash through me.

"Can I go out for a walk, Darry?" I asked, swivelling my eyes over to Steve who was now talking to Soda. Still, I wasn't about to take any chances.

I noticed that Darry looked as if he was about to refuse, but then he nodded.

"Okay, but take one of the gang with you," he ordered, and I scowled.

"But Darry, I'm thirteen; I ain't a baby," I protested.

"You sure about that?" he teased, and I groaned before deciding that going out for a walk with the gang wouldn't be the best idea, especially since it angered the socs a lot when one of the gang defended me.

Instead I got dressed into a pair of jeans, a blue plaid shirt and black boots. We had run out of hair grease but I didn't really mind; Aunt Lydia usually makes me take a bath at her house anyway.

As much as I love Aunt Lydia, I can't stand going to her house. For one, it's a _long_ car ride from Tulsa to Houston, and by the time we get there we're all annoyed with each other. Secondly, I can't stand my cousins.

June's probably the cousin I hate the most; she's just mean and horrible to me in general. She loves making me feel like I'm nothing, and she tries to get her other siblings to gang up on me. She's your typical greaser girl, however she likes to act sophisticated around people older than her, excluding her brother.

Then there's Georgie. He's fifteen, a year older than June and a few months younger than Soda, and he's a lot like June, though he's a little more mature and stops teasing me when he gets bored. From what I can guess, he's a mommy's boy, but when he's not around Aunt Lydia he can be a total jerk to everybody.

Finally, there's Stripes (his real name is Leo, but everybody calls him Stripes because of his old obsession with tigers) and I don't honestly mind him, but he's too childish for me. He's a year younger than myself, yet a few inches taller (which is embarrassing) and more muscly than me. Mom and dad used to always make me play with Stripes whenever we went over to Aunt Lydia's house, and it was annoying because literally everybody just cooed at us while we sat in front of the fire playing with the building blocks (which was Stripes' idea, not mine).

I dreaded visiting them, but then decided that it would be better than staying at home; at least there weren't any socs there.

The note that Nelson, Cody, Danny and Cal left me the day before came back to my mind, and I couldn't stop myself from picking it up off the floor. I had stuffed it under mine and Soda's bed after I had found it; I didn't want Soda knowing that I was getting picked on.

"Pony, hurry up!" Darry called from the living room. I smoothed my shirt with my hand and then ran out to the gang, however somebody decided it would be funny to trip me up. Steve's shoe came out of nowhere, and I ended up sliding on it and then crashing into the coffee table. Everybody laughed except for Darry, but even he was smirking.

It reminded me of the week before: when that greaser kid tripped me up and everybody started laughing at me, including fellow greasers. It was a greaser who had tripped me aswell – my own kind.

Greasers weren't supposed to laugh and make fun of each other; they were supposed to support each other: like a family. And here were my friends and brothers: laughing at me and making fun of me when they weren't supposed to be. The situation upset me terribly, so terribly that I felt tears leak out of my eyes. They all stopped, but none of them were happy.

"For goodness sake, Ponyboy. Quit crying like a little kid," Darry demanded. I sniffled and wiped my eyes, and then analysed everyone's faces.

Dallas was shocked, as was Two-Bit. Steve had a recognizable glare on his face, and Darry was frowning again. I was expecting for Soda to act sympathetic towards me, but he looked rather…annoyed.

"It was just a joke, Pony, no need to take it personal," he affirmed with raised eyebrows. I shook my head at all of them and pushed myself up on the floor. They were probably expecting me to say something, but I didn't.

The room was silent for a few minutes, until the phone started ringing. Darry got up to answer it while the rest of us stared up at him expectantly. I heard a high female voice on the other end of the line, and realized that it was Aunt Lydia. Well, that's just great!

"Pony and Soda, we need to get going now," Darry said after he had put the phone down. Everybody, including myself, and excluding Darry who was already standing, stood up. Two-Bit, Steve and Dallas said goodbye to Darry, Soda and I. We returned the farewells and went to our rooms to get our stuff.

We never took much to Aunt Lydia's; we all knew that if Stripes got hold of it then we'd probably never see it again, and if June knew it belonged to me then she would just burn it. Darry and Soda knew that mine and June's relationship was very tense, yet they never defended me against her. Well, Soda just placed his hands on my shoulders and led me out of the room, but even then he'd just tell June to stop being so excited.

If my cousin could hurt me, what's to stop anyone else from hurting me?

 **XXX**

We'd been driving around for four hours, and we still weren't anywhere near Houston. I pressed my forehead against the glass window and groaned while Soda put his head in my lap. We had been arguing the whole car ride which was strange; we were usually friendly to each other on long car rides, but I guess he was still annoyed that I started crying over Steve tripping me up. I told him that if he liked Steve so much then maybe he should swap me for Steve, and that's how the whole argument escalated.

Darry put his foot down after Soda and I cussed at each other, and said if he ever heard us talk to each other like that again then we'd regret it. We both shut up after that, and after a god twenty minutes we were back to our usual selves.

Soon the car stopped and I hoped that we were in Houston, however I knew that we probably still had three more hours in the car so I quickly pushed the thought out of my head. Darry turned around and handed me some money and directed his head to a small grocery store.

"Go get some drinks; we haven't had any for a few hours," he said, and he was right.

Since Darry was a responsible adult, he remembered to pack food for the trip and told Soda to get the drinks on the way out of the house. Soda being Soda completely forgot about the drinks, and we only realized when I complained that I was thirsty. Darry yelled at Soda when he said that he forgot, however he forgave him quickly; he always did.

I nodded and slid Soda's head out of my lap before opening the door and trailing off to the grocery store. It was raining, and by the time I reached the store my shirt was soaked and my boots were all muddy.

"Bad weather, huh?" the man behind the counter commented, and I sighed and smiled at him.

The drinks were cold which I was thankful for; even though it was freezing outside my mouth was awfully dry. Putting the cool soda against my forehead, I shivered and closed my eyes.

The cashier coughed, and I handed him the money then went back to soothing myself with the cold soda. I could tell the man was staring at me with a confused expression on his face, but I didn't care.

"I think you dropped somethin'," the man said, pointing to a slip of paper on the floor. I gazed at the paper; it didn't look familiar.

"It's not mine," I replied, but the man shook his head.

"It just fell out of _your_ pocket," he argued, and I groaned before picking it up.

Gathering up the drinks, I made sure that the slip of paper was clenched securely in my hand. The weather had gotten worse when I left the store, but since I was already drenched I wasn't too bothered.

When I returned to the truck, Soda was wide awake and Darry was yawning. I handed each of my brothers a drink and then settled down in the back seat. Before Darry started up the truck again I had already drank half of my drink. Soda told me to slow down, to which I did.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I couldn't stop myself from opening up the white slip of paper that I swore wasn't mine. When I saw what it said however, my opinion changed.

 _Hey Ponyboy, have you ever heard of this thing called a knife? It's what people like you use to end their pathetic lives, and let good people like us live better lives. Everybody hates you, and nobody would be better off with you here, so you might as well just go. Don't worry; if you come and find us, we'll give you a knife, though we assume you greaser trash already have billions of knives that you can use to end yourselves. Love from Nelson, Cody, Danny and Cal._

The note had fallen out of my pocket. Why did I keep getting these notes? Was it a sign…that something had to end?

 **AN: I know this chapter wasn't as good as the last one, but I wanted to update for you guys since I haven't updated for nearly a week. I hope you enjoy the chapter :) I felt offended yesterday; my friend told me that he thinks I'll forget The Outsiders in six months…ha! Like that would ever happen!**


	3. The Cafeteria Incident

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)**

After another four hours of driving, we finally arrived at Aunt Lydia's house. Unfortunately, the rain decided to pay a visit to Houston on the weekend that we were staying, and it was really bad.

Darry's truck pulled up to Aunt Lydia's house at 8 PM, which wasn't too bad because that meant that we still time to stay up rather than go to bed straight away. The downside to this however, meant that my cousins would probably bother me as soon as I stepped inside the house.

My thoughts were correct, because as soon as Darry knocked on the door, I heard June and Georgie shouting stuff at each other, which meant that they were still awake.

Aunt Lydia answered the door with a big smile on her face. We were her favorite nephews, considering her other ones never bothered to visit her family. I couldn't blame them to be honest: June and Georgie would probably scare a burglar away!

"It's so lovely to see all of you!" she bubbled, giving us all kisses on our cheeks. "Ponyboy, June and Georgie have been waiting for you all day!"

"Lovely," I scowled, looking down at my shoes. She didn't seem to notice the sarcasm in my voice, however Darry did. He put his hand on my shoulder, silently warning me that if I did anything bad, then I'd have to deal with the consequences.

We all went inside, and before anybody could stop me I ran upstairs to try and hide in the room that me, Darry and Soda always shared when we stayed. Two people that I had been trying to avoid stopped me though: June and Georgie.

"Oh look Georgie, it's our _baby_ cousin!" June mocked, smacking me upside the head. I winced in pain; June was like Darry: always rough, though I suppose June meant to be rough while Darry never meant it.

Georgie laughed too and picked me up, whirling me around until I was almost sick. When he stopped I still felt as if I was spinning, and it scared me. I must have whimpered or something, because Georgie chuckled.

"Somebody's getting fussy," he commented, smacking me on the back.

I was sick then; all over the floor. June shrieked and jumped back while Georgie dropped me. I wanted to cry; this happened _every_ time we visited! Well, at least it got Georgie to let go of me.

"Uh, that's disgusting," June scowled, marching downstairs, presumably to get Aunt Lydia. Georgie just left, not bothering to say anything.

Darry came upstairs and got me, but I was too lost in thought to actually acknowledge him.

The socs who kept sending me those notes treated me a lot like how my cousins treated me. What the socs were doing couldn't be bad then could it? If my cousins were allowed to treat me unpleasantly, it was alright if the socs treated me the same, wasn't it?

That night, Darry and Soda climbed into bed next to me. Soda was on my right side, and Darry was on my left. Soda stroked my hair while Darry rubbed my back; I think they knew that I was worrying about something.

"Don't worry, little man; Aunt Lydia's cleaned up the mess now. She's not angry," Darry soothed, wrapping an arm around my chest.

"Yeah; she asked June and Georgie what happened and they said that you were just sick, so it wasn't your fault at all. She just hopes you're okay," Soda added softly, kissing my hair.

I sighed; that wasn't the real reason why I couldn't sleep. The socs faces kept haunting my thoughts; each time I thought of them they became more menacing and evil. It wasn't just the bathroom incident that scared me; it was also the event that happened in the cafeteria, when Nelson and Cal decided to sit with me during lunch.

 **XXX**

 _The cafeteria was crowded as usual. Two-Bit and Steve were in detention, and Johnny had been sent home. His father had beaten him up the day before, so badly that Johnny could barely walk. He ended up falling during gym, and he was too exhausted to get up. I felt comfort in knowing that Darry was picking him up instead of Mr Cade; luckily for us Darry had the day off, but Mr Cade would have been too hungover to pick his son up anyway._

 _Curly was on a table at the back of the cafeteria with mark, Bryon and a few other greaser boys. I would have joined them, but one of the boys happened to be the guy who 'accidentally' threw my homework in the trash the week before._

 _So, I headed over to a table and sat right at the end. Nobody was sitting at my end; they were all at the opposite end of the table._

 _I sat there quietly, eating my lunch in peace, until two tall figures came and sat next to me._

 _I recognized them as Nelson and Cal: two of the bullies who had harassed me in the locker room._

 _Nelson had short mahogany-shaded hair that was always combed forward; I had never seen him without his bangs covering the majority of his forehead. He had a build similar to Soda's, though of course he wasn't nearly as good-looking as Soda was. As for his brown eyes, well – they were nothing special. They were rather dull-looking, though they always glimmered whenever he saw a greaser getting beaten on._

 _Cal had straight black hair which never fell over his face; if it did then he'd probably have a heart attack. He was tall and slim, and seemed to be the smartest out of all of his friends. He wore glasses which were held by thick wine colored frames to match his wine colored sweaters. He wasn't as violent as the other three, but I could tell that he was like a sly rat; he may have acted like he never did anything wrong, but he was the thinker for all of his thick-skulled buddies._

" _We didn't get to see if you were a man yet, grease. You put your clothes on before we could judge whether you were grown up or not," Nelson chuckled._

 _I laughed bitterly, and then turned my back to him. As far as I was concerned, they weren't even sitting next to me._

" _Why are you even here, grease? You do realize that everybody in this school hates you, right?" Nelson asked._

 _I turned my head sharply and glared at him._

" _Why don't you two just leave me alone?! Go find Cody and Danny, or whatever their names are; I really don't care that you're here!" I cried. I didn't feel brave at all, but I wanted to act like I was._

 _Nelson and Cal just laughed however, and I noticed Cal's eyes swivel over to my drink. Nelson caught his look, and he smiled._

" _Are you a man, Ponyboy?" he questioned me, smirking._

 _I furrowed my eyebrows together, wondering what he and his friend were playing at._

" _Because men don't wet themselves!" he shouted, alerting everybody on the other end of the table we were sitting on, and some other kids on the table behind us._

 _He grabbed my drink, and before I could stop him he poured all of it down the front of my jeans. I gasped, trying to cover my jeans, but by now Nelson had made it clear to everybody what he had done._

 _The story however, was twisted around, and some kids thought that I had actually wet myself._

 _All of the kids were laughing, except for Curly and Bryon. I knew Bryon didn't like me, but I felt grateful that he had the heart to not laugh at me like everybody else. Curly was just shaking his head sympathetically at me._

 _The emotions were too much, and I started wailing in front of everybody. This just made the kids laugh more however, and the whole situation lowered my self-esteem. I felt like I would never be able to show my face in the cafeteria again._

 **XXX**

The next morning was the same: we got up and had breakfast with Aunt Lydia, and then I had to go and play outside with my cousins. Stripes and I played with the football for a bit; he couldn't play so we decided to just toss it to one another, and it was quite fun. Of course, June and Georgie had to ruin it; Georgie took the football off us and smashed Stripes' bedroom window with it. He went and got his mom, and of course: blamed me and Stripes.

Stripes and I tried to give Aunt Lydia our version of the story, however since Georgie and June were older than us she just decided to believe them. She claimed that she wasn't angry and grinned at us, but none of us were allowed back in the garden for the rest of the day.

June invited her boyfriend, Billy, over to stay for a little while. Stripes and I tried to go into his room, however June said that it was her turn for spending time with me, and shoved me into her bedroom with Georgie and Billy.

As soon as I laid eyes on Billy, I knew that I hated him. He had smuggled alcohol under his jacket, which was also being used to hide a tattoo on his arm. I knew Aunt Lydia didn't approve of wither of these things, and I bet if I went and told her the truth about Billy, she would have forbidden June from ever seeing him again.

"What did you say your name was, kid?" he asked, swallowing some alcohol. He passed it to Georgie, who took a big gulp.

"Ponyboy," I answered, staring down at my lap.

Suddenly, Billy laughed loudly. I was sure it was just because my name was so odd, but it wasn't.

"Oh yeah, you're the kid who wet himself in front of the whole school," he stated, holding his stomach to stop laughing so hard.

I gasped; how did he know about that? I sighed as June and Georgie started laughing too.

"That would be our baby cousin right there," June teased, poking me.

I felt myself turning red, so I spoke up to defend myself.

"I didn't! Some kid poured my drink all over me, and he told everybody that I wet myself, but I didn't really!" I cried. They all just laughed in response.

Georgie's hand went for the bottle of alcohol, and I realized what he was about to do.

"No!" I shouted, getting up and running for the door. Georgie grabbed my leg and pulled me back.

"Oh Ponyboy, you won't be leaving for a _long_ time," June smirked.

All of the alcohol that had been in the bottle ended up all over my jeans; it was all just a repeat of what had happened those few weeks ago.

 **XXX**

 _Steve Randle and Dallas Winston stood inside the Curtis house. Since the Curtis brothers were away visiting their aunt, they needed someplace to crash. They were sure that Darry wouldn't mind them using the house while they were gone._

 _Dallas collapsed on the sofa while Steve went to Soda's room to look for something. Okay, so maybe he was pushing his luck…but he remembered that Ponyboy had completed an essay a few months back, and Steve had only just been assigned that essay two days ago. He was certain that the youngest Curtis had achieved an A._

 _Looking through all of the papers under the bed, Steve found a folded white piece of paper. Curiosity getting the best of him, the black-haired greaser found himself opening the slip notepaper._

 _The note read:_

 _Dear Ponyboy,  
We hope that you enjoy our notes that we give you. We put time and effort into these messages, as human beings put time and effort into their lives to look after scum like you. Seriously though, have you considered packing up your things and leaving? Perhaps you could die while you're at it! You don't seem to be getting it through your stupid head that YOU ARE NOT WANTED. NOBODY LIKES YOU. Where are your friends anyway? No wonder everybody laughs at you; you are so pathetic. – Nelson, Cody, Danny and Cal._

 _Steve scanned over the note a few more times, and then put it in his back pocket. This was better than finding an essay; now he had something that he could hold against Ponyboy._

 _The teenager laughed; Ponyboy wasn't hated by anybody, not even Steve. It was just a cruel joke, and Steve knew that he had nothing to worry about._

 _Or so he thought._

 **XXX**

Darry was so angry with me it wasn't even funny. We had to go home now; I had spoilt the whole trip.

After Billy, Georgie and June had poured the alcohol all over my jeans, I felt something inside of me snap.

I grabbed the empty bottle and smacked Georgie in the nose with it. His nose broke, letting out a crunching down as the glass came into contact with it.

June screamed and ran out of her room, while Billy tried to restrain me. I hit him too, but only managed to bruise his forehead.

I was dragged out of the room by my arm. Strangely enough, it wasn't Darry who had dragged me out, but Soda. He actually seemed angry, and I was slightly afraid, though I didn't say anything.

Without another word, I was hauled into the truck. Soda strapped me in himself, which was embarrassing, but I didn't say anything.

And now, less than four hours away from home, Darry and Soda still haven't talked to me since we left Aunt Lydia's house. I've tried to make conversation with the two of them, but they just ignored me.

They spoke to each other though, and discussed me as if I wasn't there. They were saying how much of an irresponsible child I was, and how I couldn't take an innocent joke.

If only they knew.

 **AN: Sorry for not updating for a while guys! Just letting you know, I know I said in the prologue that Pony hadn't moved up a grade yet, but now I've changed it so that he has; only because it makes it easier. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and the part about Steve was suggested to me by** **TheOutsidersPonyboy5** **. Feel free to leave any suggestions and thank you to everybody who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story so far. I can't thank you all enough :D**


	4. The dangers of friendship

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :D**

It was late when we got home. My brothers were still ignoring me, so I just got undressed and climbed into bed. I was grateful when Soda eased down next to me and pulled me to his chest; it showed that he at least had the heart to show me that he loved me. He understood that I felt things differently from others; Soda understands everything.

"Listen Pony, I know that they upset you, but that didn't give you a reason to attack all of them," he affirmed, patting my arms.

I sighed; maybe Soda didn't understand everything.

"They poured alcohol all over my jeans, Soda! And then went running downstairs and told everybody that I had an accident – do you know how embarrassing that is?!" I scowled frustratingly, pulling away from him.

Soda just placed his hands on my shoulders and pulled me back, pushing my face into his chest.

"I know it was mean, but don't stoop to their level. Yeah, they were acting childish, but you went that step further and had a temper tantrum like a toddler," he stated gently, rubbing my back.

Groaning in frustration I left the matter there; no matter how hard I tried, Soda would never understand my reasons for that fight. I snuggled down next to him and fell asleep, trying to erase the horrifying visions of Nelson and Cal in the cafeteria, and all of the kids laughing at me.

 **XXX**

The next morning I woke up later than usual; which was strange considering I was usually up first in the morning. When I sat down at the table, Darry put my breakfast in-front of me, again failing to speak to me. He just sat down next to Soda, who smiled at me.

"Why are you ignoring me?" I asked my oldest brother, who was sipping his coffee. "Darry," I said.

Sodapop looked between us, an expression of unease and slight fear evident on his handsome face. He probably thought Darry was either going to lash out at me, or I was going to do something stupid which would result in me getting punished. Either way, it wouldn't end in anything positive.

"Darry," I sighed once more. He just picked up his newspaper and turned the page, again choosing to not speak to me.

Without giving myself time to control my negative thoughts, I snatched Darry's newspaper and tore it in half. If Soda could forgive me, then why couldn't Darry?

I threw the torn pieces of newspaper back at my eldest brother, who was glaring something fierce at me. Soda just sat there, mouth agape, not saying a word.

After a few minutes of silence, I felt myself turning back into the small thirteen-year-old boy who got called a 'tag-along' and was afraid to sleep by himself, not the big snobby greaser who ripped up his six-foot-two muscly brother's newspaper. Darry saw me as a kid, and that's all's I ever would be to him. A kid who he could holler at, laugh at and ignore.

I think Darry saw that I was back to my usual self, because he held either torn piece of paper in his hand and raised his eyebrows.

"…You were ignoring me," I mumbled, trying to sound as tough as possible.

"Yes, yes I was," Darry responded, narrowing his eyes.

I just pouted and got up to go to my room, not wanting to look at my big brother any longer.

"You're grounded," he called.

"I know," I replied, closing the door. Well, I slammed it, but Darry warned me that if I got an attitude then I'd get a punishment worse than a measly grounding, so I opened it again and gently shut it behind me.

There was nothing really to do; I was planning on going out, but now that I was grounded those plans were out of the question. I got dressed and then decided to take a look at the notes that those four socs kept leaving me – I kept them under my bed so nobody would find them.

Crouching down on the floor, I managed to maintain the small box which held my letters. It was always left open since I had lost the lid a long time ago.

When I looked inside the box however, I discovered that most of the letters were gone. Only one remained, but when I opened it, I saw that it wasn't from Nelson, Cody, Danny or Cal. In fact, I recognized the handwriting before I even read it.

It said:

 _This is real funny. It was bound to happen sooner or later though; nobody likes a tag-along._

Only one person called me a tag-along, and that person was Steve Randle. And he knew; the gang member who disliked me most knew that I was getting picked on!

I felt sick; what if he told somebody? What if he told Soda, or even worse – Darry?

Breathing in and out heavily, I managed to stop the tears from slipping out of my eyes. It was bad enough that Curly knew, but now Steve knew. And I knew that Steve wouldn't be able to keep his big mouth shut for long.

Footsteps quickly tore me out of my trance, and I found myself leaping up and jumping onto my bed. I didn't know why though; I wasn't afraid of either of my brothers…

Soda opened the door and came and sat down next to me. We sat there in silence, not saying anything. I felt uncomfortable; what if Soda was mad at me?

"This new attitude of yours needs to stop," he affirmed, raising his eyebrows at me.

I quickly looked away from him, but I knew that he was still staring at me. I squirmed slightly, letting him know that I was slightly fearful.

"What was that about, huh? I know he ignored you, but tearing up his paper? Seriously?! You're acting like a five-year-old," he stated, but he was speaking gently to me. "Do you want to be treated like a five-year-old?"

"No," I responded, shaking my head. "But isn't Darry a little old for the silent treatment?"

"Don't try and change the subject," he said, firmer this time.

I scowled at him and crossed my arms, pouting like a kid who'd been put in time-out. This made Soda chuckle.

"You can come out of your room _if_ you apologize to Darry," he bargained, already standing up. I knew I didn't have a choice whether to apologize; if Darry wanted an apology then he would get one; he always gets what he wants. Well, not _always_.

I stood up and followed Soda to the living room, where Darry was sitting on the sofa watching TV. He glanced up at us, but turned away when he saw me. I swallowed and sighed sadly.

"Darry, Pony has something he'd like to say," Soda said, pushing me forward.

Standing in-front of my brother, I swallowed once again before uttering:

"I'm sorry."

Darry just nodded and then turned his attention back to the television. I made a small sound which sounded like a whimper, and then started walking back to my room; it was clear that nobody wanted me here, so why should I waste my time and theirs?

A pair of arms wrapped around my waist however and pulled me down. I smiled when I saw that it was Darry who had pulled me down onto his knee; perhaps I was now forgiven.

"I forgive you," he smiled, cuddling me. I snuggled into his chest, clinging to him when one of his arms slid off me. I realized later that it was to pull Soda down, but at that moment I was scared that if I let go of him, he wouldn't hold me again.

We all stayed there for a while, the only sound in the living room coming from the television that was softly buzzing. I closed my eyes and exhaled heavily; I didn't have a very pleasant dream last night: it was of Danny and Cody, the two boys who were absent during the cafeteria incident. In my dream, they were hurting me, and it was as if I could actually feel the pain they were inflicting upon me.

 **XXX**

" _Excuse me, Ponyboy. Do you think you could help me with this?" Sally Davies asked, pushing a piece of paper into my hands._

 _I glanced down at the paper and wasn't surprised to see that it was a sheet with a list of words that had to be defined. They were pretty easy words, something that a kid in Sally's grade should have been able to do pretty easy, but Sally wasn't that good at English._

 _I dig Sally just fine; she isn't lazy and she works hard at all of her subjects, but she just doesn't get things. It's sad really; people like Sally put a lot of studying into exams yet they come out with below average scores, while other people who don't do any studying come out with great scores in exams. I didn't understand the logic behind it; I don't think anybody did._

 _Sally's quite pretty too; she's got long brunette hair that's always frizzy and always tied back with a blue ribbon. She likes the color blue a lot; she says it reminds her of the sea. She's recently turned sixteen, but she's been held back a grade due to her 'slowness'. It's not Sally's fault; she's just different from the rest of the kids in her grade, like me; I'm quite faster than the other kids in my grade and I'm younger than all of them. Me and Sally understand each other – that's why we get on._

 _After I had explained what each word meant and Sally had written the definitions down we just sat and talked for a while. She was a soc; I could tell by the long skirt and blouse, as well as the expensive looking sandals. Everything was light blue which didn't surprise me since Sally always wore blue clothes. Some kids teased her for it, but she barely glanced at them._

" _Hey, hey, what's goin' on here?!" a familiar voice called, and I looked up to see Danny and Cody walking towards me and Sally. I shivered, but Sally just sighed._

" _What do you want, Danny?" she asked, turning to the blond._

 _Cody was next to Danny, and he was the same as last time: his hair was still red, and the acne was still on his chin. I think the acne was spreading actually. He laughed, taking a seat next to me._

" _I don't like my cousin talkin' to filthy white trash like this," Danny scowled, sitting next to Sally._

 _I gasped; Sally was his cousin?_

" _Quit talkin' like that, Danny. He's real nice," Sally affirmed, giving me a sympathetic look. Danny just growled at me._

" _They make you think that, but they're all evil," he spat. Cody shook me and I tensed, but Sally defended me again._

" _Look, just leave us alone alright? He ain't done nothin' to you two," she hollered, drawing attention to all of us._

 _I don't think the attention was liked by Danny or Cody, because the two of them stood up. Cody leaned down and whispered to me,_

" _We'll be back, greaser." And then they left._

 _The rest of lunch was just Sally and I talking, however Cody's words kept echoing in my mind. They'd be back? What were they going to do?_

 _I got up and walked back into the school building with Sally following me. We walked to my next class, and she bid me farewell before rushing off to her English classroom. I sat down and put my head on the desk, not caring that my teacher called my name. She shouted, but again I ignored her._

 _Since Two-Bit had a date with some blond, I loped on home without company. Well, at least I thought I had no company._

 _As I was about to cross the road to get to the DX, a hand clamped over my mouth and pulled me into a row of bushes. I tried to scream, but whoever was holding me had their hand clamped over my mouth so forcefully that I could barely breathe._

" _I told you we'd be back," a voice whispered in my ear. I realized it was Cody and once again attempted to scream, but Cody dug his fingers into my stomach, signalling me to shut up._

 _Danny stepped out from a bush a few moments later. He had a lit cigarette in his mouth, and he was smiling like an idiot. He removed the cigarette and held it up, and I suddenly understood what he was going to do._

 _I started jumping and struggling in Cody's arms, but he kicked me hard in the shin. I bucked and ended up almost falling, but he held me up._

" _Don't talk to my cousin again," Danny warned, raising my shirt and pressing the cigarette into my stomach._

 _Since Cody's hand was no longer covering my mouth, I screamed as if I was being murdered. It wasn't long before the red haired soc forced his hand over my mouth again, but by now adrenaline had kicked in and he struggled trying to keep hold of me._

 _Danny wasn't fazed by struggling, and repeated the process with his cigarette two more times. I was sobbing and wailing, unable to control my emotions. Cody let go of me and I fell to the ground, curling up in a ball and clutching my burnt stomach._

" _If you tell anyone about this, you and my cigarettes will be spending some quality time together," Danny laughed, and he and Cody left._

 **XXX**

Darry's hand rubbed over my stomach, and I felt a sharp pain. But I didn't say anything; I feel a lot of pain nowadays.

Soda's head was on Darry's shoulder, and he was softly snoring. I smiled; it felt as if we were a family who got along well.

The sound of a door slamming ruined that feeling however. In walked Two-Bit, Steve and Johnny. I hadn't seen Johnny for a few days now; his dad had been hitting him a lot lately.

But it wasn't Johnny who I was focusing my attention on; it was Steve who I was focusing on. Or more like his pocket:

A white piece of paper was sticking out of his pocket, and I could recognize the handwriting from the sofa.

It was one of _my_ notes. And Steve had it. He could show someone…

 **AN: Hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Thank you to everybody who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story; I can't thank you all enough :D**


	5. Art Class

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)**

Steve smirked at me when he saw my eyes on his pocket. I gulped loudly; implying that if he showed my note to either of my brothers then it wouldn't be good.

"Hey guys," Soda yawned, lifting his head off Darry's shoulder.

Only then did I remember that my brothers and I had fallen asleep on the sofa: me on Darry's lap and Soda's head on Darry's shoulder. I inwardly groaned; Steve and perhaps Two-Bit would probably tease me for getting cuddled by big brother. Still, I didn't attempt to get off Darry's lap; I was quite comfortable and still tired from my lack of sleep due to the nightmare of the socs I had the night before.

"Hey. We were headin' down to the lot to play football and we came to see if you guys wanted to join us," Two-Bit explained, staring at me confused. Probably because Darry and I had been fighting the past few days and it was rare for us to be in such a relaxed position.

"I'll come," Soda said immediately, standing up and running over to Steve who high-fived him.

Darry looked at me, silently asking me if I wanted to go. I nodded and shrugged; how bad could it be?

All six of us walked down to the lot; I talked to Johnny about some book that we were reading for English class, Steve and Sodapop whistled at a few soc girls who kept glaring at us, and Two-Bit tried to convince Darry that blond girls were the best broads for making out with. The foul expression on Darry's face made me chuckle, but he narrowed his eyes at me so I quickly stopped and went back to talking to Johnny.

By the time we arrived at the lot it had started to rain, but Steve, Sodapop and Two-Bit weren't at all fazed by the weather. Not wanting to ruin the football (which had been given to Two-Bit for his sixth birthday by his dad), the boys decided to just wrestle on the grass. When Darry decided to pull Soda away because he didn't want him to get dirty, the bottom of Soda's jeans were already covered in mud.

Darry scowled at that, but his mood lightened up when Soda grinned at him. I knew that would happen; nobody could stay mad at Soda, not even Darry. I bet if it was me who had wrecked all of my jeans, Darry would have grounded me and forced me to wash them myself. But I didn't care; I was used to it.

Dallas and Tim Shepard happened to stroll by when Two-Bit 'accidentally' punched Steve in the jaw. Steve went wild then, but I could see it in his eyes that he was only playing; even if he did look like a madman. Dallas smirked and jumped on them, but Tim just left; I think we were too childish for his liking.

Tim reminds me a lot of Darry; he doesn't really understand anything that isn't plain hard – if he sees people play-fighting then he'll cuss at them for being stupid. He gets into fights a lot, and I guess it bothers him when people just play-fight. But he can be immature too: like the time he put on Angela's lipstick and claimed he was Sylvia. But then again, I didn't know if he was drunk or not at the time; Tim's drunk a lot.

I knew Darry probably would have skinned me if I attempted to get involved with the boys' wrestling, so I just stood next to him and watched them. Soda was eager to join in, but Darry warned him that he'd be grounded if he did such a thing. He looked serious then, and I wasn't sure whether he really meant it or not; Soda's rarely punished, but the way Darry raised his eyebrows at Soda made me think that it could've been different if Soda did get involved with the wrestling. Thankfully he didn't, but his jeans were still ruined.

"Hey Steve, I think you dropped something," Two-Bit declared, picking up a white piece of paper that Steve had had in his pocket. I gasped; it was the note.

Two-Bit started to unfold the paper, and I knew that my fate was sealed, until Steve snatched the paper off of him.

"Ah, it's nothing," he responded, placing the paper back in his pocket. He glanced at me for a moment and then quickly tore his gaze away. I think Johnny saw mine and Steve's eye contact, but he didn't say anything.

"Alright, well I'm telling all of you that you are not coming back to the house covered in mud," Darry announced, shaking his head at Sodapop, Two-Bit, Steve and Dally.

Sodapop just shrugged and unbuttoned his pants since they were his only clothing that were covered in mud, but Steve stopped him.

"At least wait until we're outside the _house_ ," he reprimanded.

Dallas said he'd change at Buck's while Two-Bit and Steve went to Two-Bit's house to shower; the rusty-haired greaser's mom was out at that moment, but she didn't really care what their house looked like anyway.

I knew that Darry cared _a lot_ about what our house looked like, and everybody else knew too. If any of the gang (well, excluding Johnny) trekked mud into our house, including me and maybe Soda, Darry would probably skin them alive, and the gang knew it.

When we got home me and Johnny locked ourselves in my room while Sodapop went to shower and Darry started on dinner. Johnny sat on my bed while I searched through mine and Soda's closet; I had been keeping something in there that Darry would kill me for if he found out.

"Johnny, if I show you this, you gotta swear not to tell anyone," I warned, turning around to face him. Johnny nodded vigorously; he was always nervous around people; even the gang, though not as much.

A gasp was heard from Johnny as I revealed the large bottle of vodka. Curly Shepard had slipped it to me when Tim was out, and as much as I wanted to decline the offer, I felt tuff knowing that I owned not beer, but vodka.

"Pony! Do you know how mad Darry will be if he sees you with that?! Even Soda will be mad!" he scolded, furrowing his dark eyebrows together.

I sighed sadly; Johnny was my best friend – he was supposed to laugh about it and keep it our secret…he wasn't supposed to tell me off for it.

"Relax; I wasn't gonna drink it. But it makes me look tuff, don't ya think?" I asked, pretending to drink some of it.

Johnny exhaled heavily in relief, but he still didn't look happy. It was strange; Johnny was usually really quiet and agreed with everything that everyone said, but now he was actually annoyed with me, and it felt strange.

"Where'd you get it?" he questioned as I took a seat next to him on mine and Soda's bed.

"Curly," I answered.

He believed my answer because he nodded, as if he was agreeing with me.

"So you weren't gonna drink it?" he continued, eyeing the bottle carefully.

"Yeah, yeah. Promise," I muttered, getting up and putting the bottle back in the closet.

I was honestly surprised that Soda hadn't found it; I hadn't hid it that greatly. Knowing I'd have to get rid of it within a month due to the social worker's inspection scared me a little, but I knew that Curly would just hide it at his place; he was a good friend.

 **XXX**

One thig I hated about art class was that I was seated with a bunch of socs. Some of them just plain ignored me while others called me every name under the sun; they didn't like me, and I didn't like them.

Our teacher, Mr Aaronson, announced that we would be painting. The painting assignment would take us about three lessons to finish, and we would be graded for it. I quite liked art, so I was confident that I'd do well on the assignment.

We had to paint an animal, and everybody knew that Mr Aaronson had probably just thought of the idea before the class had started; he wasn't very good at planning things.

It didn't bother me though; I already had a great idea - I'd draw Mickey Mouse: Soda's old horse; he'd be happy with it, and I had a feeling that Darry would be proud of it too. I got all the paints ready and started drawing the outline of the horse, making sure to be very careful that I was delicate with the pencil.

When the outline with the pencil was done, I picked up the palette and started painting within the lines. It was going really well, until I turned around and found Nelson standing behind me with his own palette in his hands.

"What do you want?" I sighed.

He smirked and then raised the palette above my head, and I expected to be covered in paint. Instead it was Nelson who ended up covered in paint.

"Mr Aaronson! Ponyboy just threw my paint palette at me!" Nelson shrieked, rubbing the paint down his sweater; making it worse. I gasped; Nelson had done it himself!

"It wasn't me!" I shouted in my defence, but everybody's attention was towards Nelson's expensive-looking sweater.

It was clever, I had to admit, but it got me blamed for something that I hadn't done. This was worse than getting covered in paint; now I had been framed for something that I hadn't even done.

"Ponyboy, please go to Mr Ryans office; you're in trouble," Mr Aaronson declared, though he didn't sound at all threatening.

"No! I didn't do anything wrong!" I hollered, gathering my paints up. I continued to paint, not caring that everybody was staring at me.

From the corner of my eye I saw Nelson smirking at me, and as much I wanted to fight with him, I decided against it.

Mr Aaronson left, and when he came back he returned with Mr Ryans. I sighed and threw my palette down, knowing that Mr Ryans would want to talk to me. Everybody watched us as we left, but I just acted like I couldn't see them.

"What happened?" my principal asked as we walked down the hallway.

"Nelson spilt paint on himself and blamed me," I responded, cracking my knuckles.

"Did he really spill it on himself, or did you?" he asked as we arrived at his office.

"He _really_ did spill it on himself," I snapped, crossing my arms.

There was no real point in arguing with my principal; I knew that I wouldn't win because after all: I'm a greaser and Nelson is a soc.

"You hardly ever lie, Ponyboy, and I do believe that you're telling the truth. I'll let you off and I won't call anybody, however since you refused to leave the classroom when Mr Aaronson told you to, I agreed with Mr Aaronson to send a note home," he explained, making me groan. "It was Mr Aaronson's idea, not mine," he added.

He told me to go back to class, and he wrote to Mr Aaronson that I shouldn't be punished though I needed to get a note sent home because of my refusal to leave the classroom. Mr Aaronson seemed satisfied, and I was allowed to continue with my painting.

When I turned around I saw Nelson and Cal both glaring at me, and I knew that I was in trouble.

 **XXX**

My lunchtime was spent with Johnny and Two-Bit; Steve had gone somewhere and I didn't usually hangout with anybody else. Sometimes I hung out with Curly at lunch, though that was quite rare since he was usually with a bunch of girls or guys who I didn't like.

I was grateful to have two people sitting with me; that way none of the socs could get me without having witnesses there. I would have fought with them, however they were older and there were more of them than me.

When lunch was over I had gym class, which I wasn't looking forward too; the incident in the locker rooms had scared me slightly. I wasn't just going to skip though; that'd make me look weak.

We were doing running, which I was good at, so I quickly forgot about the incident with the socs. However, I was quickly reminded of my misfortune when _somebody_ tripped me up.

I scowled, but Cody only laughed and jogged away.

Again, I refused to shower with the other boys. I saw Nelson, Cody, Danny and Cal leave, so I thought I was safe. I managed to get dressed, and since it was last period we were free to go.

But just as I finished gathering up my gym clothes, four certain socs walked into the locker rooms.

"Not again!" I snapped.

I noticed that Cal was carrying a large bottle of paint, and so was Nelson.

"What did you tell the principal before, huh?" he asked, walking towards me. I noticed the paint was blue, and since my shirt was red it would be very noticeable.

"I didn't tell him nothin'," I lied, backing away towards the exit.

"We don't like liars do we guys?" Nelson asked, and all of them shook their heads.

Nelson was the first to squirt paint on me. It splattered all over my shirt and jeans, but that didn't seem to matter when Cal started throwing it at my hair.

I tried to run, but Danny tripped me up, and they continued to cover me with the paint. I'd left my blade at home; Darry hated me taking it to school, and there was nothing I could use as a weapon in the locker room.

The situation made me realize two things: One, carry some form of weapon to school. And two, don't care what your body looks like and just shower with the other boys; it's better than getting covered in paint.

Cal and Nelson didn't stop squirting the paint until both bottles were completely empty. The bottle which Cal had was filled with green paint, which was all over my jeans and some was in my hair; I think that's what he was intending to do.

My shoes were ruined, and I knew Darry was gonna have a fit when he saw the state of me. I decided I didn't care; it wasn't my fault after all. The only thing I dreaded was walking home with paint all over me; people were sure to laugh.

When Darry saw me I honestly thought he was going to have a heart attack. I think he stopped breathing for a moment; letting anger overtake him. Soda just burst out laughing, thinking that I'd got in a paint fight with someone.

"Bathroom right now!" Darry commanded. I obeyed, fearing that if I didn't do what he said then he'd yell the place down.

I took my clothes off and started scrubbing them, attempting to get the paint off them. It wouldn't work though, so I just threw them in the bathtub and washed my hair.

Darry came in a few minutes later and hollered at me about my clothes; telling me that he probably wouldn't be able to get the paint out. I wanted to say something in my defence, but wisely decided against it; when Darry was in a really bad mood then it wasn't very smart to say something that he disagreed with or didn't want to hear.

"Sorry…" was all I mumbled.

"Thought so," Darry growled, picking up my clothes and taking them to the kitchen.

Sighing, I made my way to mine and Soda's room. I got dressed into some sweatpants and climbed into bed; I didn't really feel like going out and facing Darry again so I decided to just sleep for a little bit.

I'd never tell anybody about those socs; I knew that I could fight my own battles. Shutting my eyes, I decided that I was going to start fighting back, whether there were more than two socs or not. They needed to know that I wasn't just some kid they could mess with.

Then I remembered the vodka in the closet, and how Johnny had been so worried about me drinking it. Kids don't drink…

Surely if I drank some, then people would think I was more mature right? I fell asleep with vodka and socs in my mind.

 **AN: Sorry it took so long to update this guys! I was a bit stuck on ideas, and I had an issue the other day with fanfiction where it wouldn't show any of the stories and told me that there were no stories on the site. Luckily it's working now :) Please feel free to leave any suggestions and thank you to everybody who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story. I can't thank you all enough :D**


	6. Dinner Arguments

**I apologise to anyone who likes this story for the amount of time that it hasn't been updated. The last time it was updated was August 13 2015, and now it is January 20** **th** **2016 – it's actually January 31** **st** **2016 now, the 20** **th** **was when I started writing this chapter XD-! I just got really stuck on it which made me lose interest, but now it's back…sorry :(**

 **I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)**

"Darry, could you pass me the ketchup please?" I asked my oldest brother, as I couldn't quite stretch my arm long enough to reach the red bottle.

My big brother picked up the bottle, but made no move to pass it to me. "You sure you're not gonna ruin your clothes if I give this to you?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes, but he caught it. "Ponyboy!" he reprimanded. "I sure don't know what's gotten into you over these past few days, but you need to cut this attitude out."

"Sorry," I mumbled, picking up one of my 'unketchuped' fries. I think Darry felt bad when he saw me miserably chewing on my fry, because he handed the ketchup over then. But he didn't say anything, which was kinda upsetting to be honest.

"How'd you even get all that paint on you anyway, Pony?" Soda smirked, grabbing a handful of his fries and stuffing them in his mouth. "Ain't never seen ya so dirty before."

"There was an accident in art class," I muttered quickly. "Speaking of which, I need you to sign somethin', Darry."

Darry rolled his eyes at me. Strange how I wasn't allowed to do it to him, but he could do it to me. In my opinion, it wasn't fair – at all.

"Can you ever keep out of trouble?" he mumbled under his breath, but I heard him alright.

That little comment made me feel bad then. I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it, but it made me feel a bit like a burden. He never said anything like that to Soda, even when Soda had done stuff worse (stuff much worse than ruining your clothes). Maybe he did love Soda more…no; he loved us both the same. He told me that all the time, and Darry never lied about anything.

Dinner became unappetizing at that moment. The fries were too salty, and the meat was too soft. No, I couldn't eat this; I'd be sick.

"Eat your food please," Darry said, though he wasn't asking – his tone said otherwise.

Miserably, I picked up another fry and chewed it slowly, not bothering to put ketchup on it. The ketchup that I had squirted onto my plate tasted almost watery to me now. Now I realize I only felt like this because I was upset, but I honestly thought that there was something wrong with my food. So I told Darry.

"This is disgusting, Darry," I claimed, grabbing a napkin and spitting my dinner out into it. "I don't want it."

Big mistake. When I looked up, Darry was glaring fiercely at me. Sodapop's eyes were wide, as if to ask me what I was thinking.

"Excuse me?" Darry growled lowly. "Me an' Soda both work so we can put this food on your plate. You'll eat what you're given, Ponyboy Curtis."

"Well, I'm sorry," I spoke up. "But I don't want it. It's _disgusting_ , Darry."

But then I saw it. The hurt that flashed in Darry's eyes when I insulted the food. Food that he'd made. Food that he'd worked hard for. I was expecting Darry to yell, since he usually yells when he's upset, but instead he swallowed and took my plate from me.

"If you don't want your food, then you can go to bed," he hissed. "More for me and Soda, after all, ain't that right?"

My brother began throwing my food down onto his and Soda's plates. Sodapop looked up at Darry in horror, while I just stared at him, shocked.

"Go on, Ponyboy," Darry hollered. "Go to bed!"

I sighed and slowly walked to my room. It wasn't my fault about the food; at the time it just tasted so horrible. And it was Darry's own fault for getting so offended because I just plainly didn't want to eat it. He offends me all the time after all…well, he yells at me an' stuff, which is pretty upsetting.

He just doesn't understand. Darry's the one that always tells me that I don't have any problems, yet he never even bothers to listen to me when I come to him about something. That's the way I saw it anyway. Always hollering at me for stuff I do and stuff I don't do – it gets to a point where I'm just sick of it all. And when I upset him _once_ , he goes all crazy! Even worse, I know Soda'll take his side.

I did like Darry told me to do: I went and climbed in bed. I couldn't be bothered staying awake to put up with him any longer, however once I was in bed, I couldn't get to sleep. That nap from the afternoon had really taken its effect on me; I probably wouldn't be able to sleep for another three hours! So I just lay there in silence, hoping that if I closed my eyes for a while, I'd just drift off. No such luck unfortunately.

Sodapop came into our room a few minutes later. He had his arms crossed and didn't look happy one bit; well, I'd just upset our oldest brother after all. The one who had given up his life for us. The one who worked long days to provide for us all. The one who _never_ stopped hollering at me.

"That was a horrible thing to say, Ponyboy," Sodapop stated in disgust, his eyes narrowed at me. "Do you know how much-"

"Yeah, yeah, Soda, I know how much Darry works to get that food for us. I know what I said hurt him, I know. But he hurts me with his words all the time, Sodapop. And you know it too," I responded, crossing my arms and leaning back into our bed. Sodapop didn't stop glaring at me.

"Well, he's gone through a lot, Ponyboy. You know that; hell, everybody does. Look, he says stuff he don't mean sometimes, so what? It's not like you've never made that mistake." I felt frustration rise in me then.

"I _just_ made that mistake, Sodapop, and you're tellin' me off for it! Tell Darry to lay off me for a change!" I shouted.

"Oh you don't think I do? I tell him all the time, Ponyboy, and you know it!" Sodapop claimed. I could tell he was getting as frustrated as I was. But I wasn't willing to give in.

"No, because if you did, then he would have stopped a long time ago, 'cause even you know that you're the favorite!" Sodapop stepped back then, as if I were about to punch him; he wore an expression of pure shock on his face.

"What do you mean, Ponyboy?" he asked, much softer this time. "Darry loves us both the same, kiddo."

Of course I knew that, deep in my heart anyway. But I wanted to be right; I just wanted to prove my big brother wrong somehow.

"But I don't care, Sodapop. Because ya know what?" I stopped for a moment. "I don't like him either!" This time I shouted loud enough for Darry to hear. Even though I was answered with silence, I was sure he heard me.

Sodapop was looking at me sadly, and then shook his head. He was frowning, and I hate it when he frowns; he loses that sort of happy-go-lucky look about him.

"You've changed, Ponyboy," he expressed, a mixture between sad and angry. Then he left, making sure to close the door loudly.

I sat back and sighed. It wasn't my fault that I'd changed. It was _their_ fault.

Opening the drawers and searching, I finally found a small silver box. I opened it, and unfolded a small piece of paper that was in there.

 _Kill yourself, greaser scum._

 _-Your buddies, Nelson, Cody, Danny and Cal_

Yep, Darry was right: I really had no problems at all.

 **AN: Sorry this chapter is kinda short; I just wanted to update before February, as weird as it sounds. Hope you all enjoyed. Do ya'll have any suggestions? Part of the reason for not updating was because I was stuck on ideas XD Thanks to everybody who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story so far – I can't thank you all enough :)**


	7. Renee's Invitation

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)  
Date: March 26** **th** **2016 – sorry for the slow updates! I'll try to be quicker.**

"Excuse me, could you give me a hand with these boxes, please?"

I looked up to see a girl of around fifteen with long, curly rust-colored hair smiling down at me. She was carrying a pile of large, heavy-looking boxes in her hands, and appeared to be struggling with them.

"Of course," I answered quickly, jumping up and taking a few of the boxes away from her. As I was small for my age and my muscles hadn't developed yet, the boxes put a definite strain on my body. But I put a straight face on; the girl in-front of me was the type of girl that you just didn't show any pain to.

"I just need to take them to the music class for Miss Holly," the girl explained to me as we walked into the school building; I had been sitting outside drawing a picture of a tree for art homework. "It's the sophomores and juniors school dance tonight – this is all the stuff for the dance."

Oh yeah, Two-Bit had been telling me about the school dance, though I hadn't listened much. Mainly because he was just talking about how he was gonna get laid when the dance ended and all that stuff.

"I'm Renee, though most people I know call me Renny," the girl smiled. I'd never met a Renee before. "Are you goin' to this dance tonight, uh…?"

"Ponyboy," I answered for her. Renee raised an eyebrow. "My father named me," I grinned, thinking about dad. "But no, I ain't goin' to this dance. I'm a freshman," I explained.

Renee shook her head. "You look like a sophomore," she said softly, biting her lip. I felt my ears getting hot and my cheeks turning red; surely she was just teasing. "Well, a lot of my friends aren't goin' to this dance, includin' me."

"Oh, why's that?" I questioned. Renee raised her eyebrows and smirked. I swallowed; she was quite pretty. Though unfortunately for me I didn't know the first thing about girls.

"My parents are outta town for the week," the girl giggled. "So this would be the greatest time to throw a party. I mean, let's be honest, the teachers just treat everyone like babies at school dances anyway. But at my house there'll be plenty of alcohol for everyone." Renee chuckled. I chuckled too.

"That sounds cool," I blushed, staring down at my shoes.

"Why don't you come?" she asked seriously, staring at me with her dark, green eyes. I shuffled nervously.

"Well…"

"Come on, it'll be fun," Renee encouraged, grinning at me.

I suppose I wouldn't have minded if Renee looked like a greaser, but her long skirt and fluffy sweater told me she was a soc. Plus she spoke in a 'proper' manner, not like greaser girls who swore whenever they got a chance.

"I'd have to ask my brothers," I said. "I live with them…so they have to know." It was a pathetic excuse really, and I must have sounded like a three or four year old. Renee raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, are you just a baby?" she teased. I felt myself getting a little panicky; this girl who was either a sophomore or a _junior_ was asking me to go to a house party. And this house party would contain seniors no doubt, along with some decent girls…

"I'll go," I said, nodding my head. Renee set down some boxes and clasped her hands together.

"Great," she giggled, and then looked at the boxes I was still carrying. "You can put them down now," she chuckled.

I blushed and placed the boxes gently down onto the table while the girl in-front of me whipped out a pen from her pocket and a small notebook. She wrote on it, the pen working like lightning, and then tore out some paper from the notebook and handed the paper to me.

"My address," she smiled. "Can't wait to see you there, Ponyboy."

"Yeah, see you there," I said softly, stuffing the note in my pocket. Renee grinned, pushing some of her curly hair back before leading me out of the classroom.

Some kids turned around to look at us when we entered the hallway. I gulped when I saw Nelson standing at the end, giving me a sceptical look. Renee waved at him and he nodded at her, and I felt my ears hear up. What if him, Cody, Danny and Cal all attended the party?!

"Are they-" I didn't have time to get my answer as Renee ran off to join a group of girls, socs no doubt – all with skirts below the knee and blouses long enough to be tucked in.

Those girls made me think of Sally Davies – I'm sure she was Danny's cousin – the strange girl who wore sandals, even in the winter. She sure was pretty, though like I've said before, everybody teases her due to her slowness. Not that I care. I think we have a lot in common. Maybe she'd be there.

Then there were the soc girls like Cherry Valance. I'd never once spoken to her – freshmen don't talk to the cheerleaders – but she seemed stuck up to me. She's the type of girl that turns her nose up at the sight of us greaser boys, simply because we're poorer than her. I didn't like soc girls like that.

Maybe Renee would be different. I guess I'd find out at the party.

 **XXX**

"Check Ponyboy out Darry, getting invited to a party!" Sodapop chuckled, tickling me. We were all walking home from my school; for some reason everybody was bored and decided picking me up from school would be…fun. No really; they just had nothing better to do.

"Who invited you, Ponyboy?" Darry asked, a frown on his forehead. I sighed, I knew he'd ask this.

"A girl in my grade," I lied. "She ain't a greaser girl; she's middle-class."

Before Darry could ask me who the girl was, Angela Shepard came running over to us.

I bit my lip and pulled away from Soda, looking away to hide my face. Angela was very pretty. I had a dream about her once and well…now I try not to look at her as much.

"Dallas, Tim's lookin' for you," she claimed, rubbing her face with her palm.

"What for?" Dallas asked, standing over her, probably to try and intimidate her. Angela didn't look fazed in the slightest, though she did step back a bit.

" _You_ slashed his tires," she answered, attempting to size Dallas up, which wasn't a good idea to do really.

"I did not-"

"Angela, is that the father?!" a female voice shouted from the parking lot. We all turned round to face the owner of the voice.

"Only seven more choices!" another girl laughed. All of the other girls burst out laughing at their friend's comment.

Angela's face flushed, and she eyed Dallas rather coolly. "Don't forget," she warned, though her voice was wavering. She stomped off angrily.

"I knew your stomach was getting' bigger, Angela, but I just thought you were fat. Guess I was wrong!"

"I'm not pregnant!" Angela screamed, running off quickly. All girls laughed loudly.

Darry just shrugged, nodding for us to start walking. "That's what she gets for bein' a little slut," he muttered.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at my brother in shock. He'd _never_ say that about a woman his age. I remember when his ex got with somebody straight after she and Darry broke up, and when Steve called her a nasty name, Darry told Steve that he didn't know her and had no right to call her that name.

"That wasn't nice, Darry," I affirmed.

My brother just stared at me. "It's the truth." He said. I glared at him.

What a hypocrite.

 **XXX**

Since this was a soc's party I was going to, I decided to wash all of the grease out of my hair. I at least wanted to look decent for everybody.

Maybe Darry had told me not to go. That didn't mean anything though; if I wanted to go then I was gonna go. He couldn't keep me locked up forever.

Besides, Renee would think I was baby, and I really wasn't. It was time I grew up and let loose.

I hoped the party would go smoothly. Boy, I was wrong.

 **AN: There's this chapter. I'll try to update sooner :) Sorry about how long I'm taking to update this story, but I will try. Hope ya'll enjoyed :)**


	8. The Party

**I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)  
Happy 54** **th** **birthday Tom Cruise! On one of my chapters on North and South I wished him a Happy 53** **rd** **in the author's note – exactly one year ago when I was 14…how time flies :)**

This wasn't how I imagined a high school party to be. Sure, I assumed there'd be couples, a few kids drunk, and maybe some fights…but this was just chaos! Nearly everyone was drunk – some kids vomiting and falling on the floor. Others were just dancing and having a good time. The rest were either making out or fighting or playing spin the bottle. I didn't even wanna know what 7 minutes in heaven or whatever it was called was like.

Then there was my social issue. Not soc issue – my literal _social_ issue. I knew nobody here. Well, Sally was there but she was with a group of middle-class and soc girls who I couldn't be bothered talking to, and Renee was nowhere to be found. So here I was: by myself.

"Here, kid," some guy said, thrusting a bottle of beer into my hands. I gulped and as soon as he was gone I put it on a nearby counter; I used to think booze was cool, but seeing the effects it did to people basically melted away my fantasies. I didn't want to be stuck in-front of a bowl for the whole night when I was supposed to be having fun – what were those kids thinking?!

So I attempted to just make myself invisible. Stand with a crowd of people, but not exactly be in the crowd, while sipping on a bottle of soda that I hadn't set down for a _second_. A few kids turned to look at me, but once they realized I wasn't that interesting, they quickly turned away again.

It wasn't until I heard two familiar voices that my whole world basically came crashing down. "Well, well, well…look what we have here." Nelson.

I didn't need to hear his voice twice. In less than two seconds I had bolted away from the particular crowd I was standing in and ended up in the hallway. And guess who I found?

"Oh, hi Ponyboy!" Renee bubbled, wrapping her arms around me. I grinned; saved at last! "I was wonderin' where you were. For a second I thought you might not come, which would have left me _heartbroken_!"

"I'm right here," I assured her, not missing the scent of vodka mixed with perfume that lingered around her.

But man, even drunk she was still pretty. Her blue dress was too tight though, and it made me a little uncomfortable, but when Renee saw this she just giggled.

"No need to be shy, Pony! I like you anyway…seriously I literally just met you and I'm already in-love," she drawled, rolling her 'o' when she said love. Darry warned me about this: he said if a lady was ever drunk then I should never take advantage of it, and I wasn't about to.

I really wasn't. But Renee was just too tempting.

She pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, and I swear I heard my ribs crack. Awkwardly, I wrapped my arms around her rather warm back, trying my best to avoid touching any part of her that you shouldn't touch if not given permission.

"So...dreamy," she muttered, and then pulled away from me. "C'mon: let's go get cake!"

To be honest, with the way this party had been going, I was surprised that there even was a cake. Party cake just reminded me of the little parties from grade school where the kid's parent would yell "Time to blow out the candles" and all the little kids would gather around the birthday kid with their little party hats and all sing "Happy Birthday" in high-pitched voices. I doubted anybody would be bothered to stop drinking to pay any attention to Renee and her cake…and anyway: why did she even have cake? This was just a high school party – not a birthday one.

"Hey guys!" Renee yelled, throwing a bottle on the floor. Everybody looked at the beautiful girl standing beside me. "Thank you to Sally for baking this cake just for the party," she grinned, and Sally waved at her in acknowledgement. "Anyway, I wanted to actually dedicate this cake to not me, or any of my friends, but Ponyboy Curtis right here!" she yelled.

I turned red as people either yelled inaudible stuff or just plain laughed. Renee was one of the ones who laughed. "I think I should give the honor of my best friends: Cody and Nelson, and their friends Danny and Cal, to show the cake as a gift to him!"

I gasped. No…this couldn't be happening. Before I could register what was happening, my arms were seized. People began cheering and I had no idea what was going on. Until…

"Drop it! Drop it!"

And that my face and hair, and other parts of my body, ended up getting covered in all of the sludgy icing from Renee's cake. The laughs from before got louder, as well as the yells.

"Daniel, what the hell?! I-I made that cake too!"

"He truly is a greaser now!"

"Aw c'mon, he's just a kid."

"I think the look suits him!"

I wiped the cake off my face, dragged my fingers through my hair to get rid of the icing that had invaded it, and scratched at my clothes to get all of the stuff off. What was I supposed to do now? Run? Cry? Scream?

"Thanks for ruining my party," Renee said from beside me, seething. "Stupid kid." And with that she left me in the living room. As did everyone else. Except for four people – and no, it wasn't _those_ four.

A girl with red hair and a pretty face. A girl with brown hair and pink lips. A handsome boy wearing a wine-colored sweater. Another with brown eyes and a tall stature. They were all staring at me, silently, confused. As if wondering why exactly what had just happened – had happened.

But I didn't have time for them. So I just stormed past all of them, however I didn't knock into any of them, in-case you were expecting me to. They were socs for sure…just like those bullies, like Renee. But they hadn't done anything wrong.

However, I had been targeted just because I was a greaser. Because I was different from them. At least that's what I thought.

I guess that just meant I was better than all of them.

Now, my only problem was: what was Darry gonna say? I wasn't stupid; he and Soda both would have known I was gone by now. How did I explain my appearance to them?

It's just be the same as that time in art class, wouldn't it? Darry didn't listen then. And he wouldn't now.

Bad luck just seemed to follow me around – _all_ the time.


	9. First Half

"Where the hell have you been, Ponyboy?!"

I ignored my brother as I sloped past him, pushing open my bedroom door. For a second, I thought that Darry might have been in bed and wouldn't have noticed that I was gone. But then again, he was _Darry_ , my older brother, as well as my full-time parent.

"Don't you ignore me!" he yelled, pushing the door open with so much force that it banged against my bedroom wall, chipping the paint.

It must have looked ridiculous. A tall, broad-shouldered man, screaming his lungs out at a small, thin boy who had cake icing on almost every inch of his body. There was loads in my hair too, which was beyond annoying!

I had cried on the way home; those bullies had humiliated me, laughed at me, made me feel like I wasn't worth anything – well I certainly wasn't worth anything to them – and all in all they were just downright horrible. It made me feel stupid too; how hadn't I seen it? Sure, there were other greasers there, but they were the ones who were tough and didn't let anyone mess with them. I was just a little kid to them.

However, I didn't cry now. I wanted to rid myself of any emotion when I faced my brothers. Why, might you ask.

Well, it's simple. I care about my brothers, a lot more than those bullies, and that bothers me a lot. When Darry screamed at me, it hurt so bad. I knew that when he did yell, he was disappointed, and that absolutely kills you to disappoint someone who has given up so much for you.

It wasn't long before my brother grabbed me. He turned me round sharply, forcing me to face him. His countenance held nothing but anger – blue eyes filled with absolute rage, cheeks burning - Darry was ready to kill me basically. And to be honest, I welcomed death at that moment. I didn't want to face anybody ever again.

Maybe I could runaway to the jungle. I could be like that kid Mowgli, the feral child. Or I could join a wolf pack – I'd heard of a few stories of wolves raising children. We could watch the sunsets together as I lay between them, their gray fur so long that it was like a massive blanket. They could teach me how to survive in the cold, how to hunt…

 **X**

 **Hey everybody, it's Kat here**

 **Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? Let me tell you:**

 **I am so sorry for all those who enjoyed my stories on here…it was fun while it lasted, but I don't see myself updating my Outsiders stories in the future.**

 **Why? Simple, my obsession for them faded, and I instead grew an obsession for the band One Direction.**

 **My bio, that states that I don't like modern music or modern anything, is no longer relevant. I have grown out of my obsession with the 80s, and though I still love it, I am no longer one of those kids that state 'I was born in the wrong generation'.**

 **I stopped updating after I went on holiday in 2016. Simply because, when I got back, I didn't really feel like updating anymore. I still read Outsiders fanfiction loads, though I don't think I was as into it as I used to be. Then, in October, when it was 3** **rd** **time visiting London that year, on the journey down, I was looking for Union J fanfiction, and instead found a crossover between many British (and one Australian – guess who XD) band. Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles were two of the main characters.**

 **I looked through other Union J fanfictions, however there were many more One Direction fanfictions. A night of scrolling through their Instagrams ended in a full-on obsession of the British boyband, who were already broken up at the time, but that means nothing to me XD**

 **I used to read Outsiders fanfiction every day…now I read 1D fanfiction every day. The friendship between Harry and Louis was one that really grew on me. Fanfiction got me into The Outsiders, and fanfiction also got me into 1D.**

 **I even got Harry Styles tickets today!**

 **So everybody, if anyone who used to read my work is still around, thank you so much, but yeah…I can't continue writing things that my heart isn't in. I write 1D fanfiction now on Wattpad; though I never have OCs – that will never change about me; I wrote one OC story on here and it wasn't even with a girl and yeah…I gave up after about six chapters. Maybe that's why I left; I guess more and more stories with OCs were coming about and I just don't like them. No – my stories will always remain about the canon characters (maybe with OCs to add to the plot – Mr North from North and South ;) )**

 **And if you're new here…hello! I'm Kat – I joined this site when I was 13 years old and spent most of my time writing stories here when I was 14…in year 9.**

 **It was my second-to-last GCSE today…that's how long I've been here. Plus without One Direction...I wouldn't have anything heart-felt to talk about in my speech for English speaking exam. I got a distinction - the best grade :)**

 **And since I most probably won't be continuing with this story, here's what I had planned out:**

 **Ponyboy continued to get harassed by bullies, but nobody really realises, except for Johnny, who confronts his best friend about why he is so upset. In a spur of the moment, Ponyboy lashes out and tries to hit Johnny, but just then the boys come in and al scream at Pony. They all begin to avoid him, even his own brothers, and he is still bullied, until he tries to really hurt himself, however luckily Soda and Steve find him. The story continues…and there is a happy ending, and Pony no longer gets bullied as they are all…I don't know, it's ambiguous? XD**

 **And finally, a big thank you to Sarah, although known here as FrankElza. A user who has been supporting my stories since I ever published one. Thank you for always reviewing my stories and leaving friendly feedback and just everything! I really appreciate it honestly, and the best of luck to you and your stories and your continuation on this site.**

 **Though I do have to say, now that I write 1D fanfiction, I no longer have to write in American English, which is good as I am British myself - as they are a British-Irish band I can write in my own language! Seriously - I can go to Cheshire (Harry's hometown and growing up place) loads, especially Holmes Chapel ( :D) as I live so close...yay!**

 **Thank you all, once again, and have fun. I'll never forget The Outsiders, but now it's my time to say goodbye to this fandom, for now anyway. I mean I could come back XD**

 **See ya til then  
\- Kat :D**


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